Boots

Unknown artist

Boots of a shaman. Shaman's clothing, like shaman's boots, functioned primarily as a symbol of a spiritual world of spirits to which the shaman traveled. The clothing housed various spiritual forces that helped the shaman on this journey to protect him from evil spirits. It remains to be seen if these are typical modern shaman boots or if they were just functional everyday boots of a shaman. \What is known is that this pair of boots are made of reindeer fur and sealskin. On the upper part, there is a thick black border with sporadic decorated flower patterns with simple decorated embroidery underneath. The soles were usually boat-shaped with pleats at the heel and toes, or flat and unpleated. The curved soles were usually made from sealskin or walrus. The flat sole was usually made of seal, walrus or reindeer.‖ There is no difference between the clothing of the Chukchi who live on the coast and those who live in the interior. However, the Chukchi of the coast make greater use of sealskins and the Chukchi of the interior of reindeer. In the winter they prefer to use reindeer skins. The seal skins are more useful in humid weather and so are more useful in spring and summer.‖ Nowadays, the Chukchi still wear traditional boots in winter. In the summer, however, they make use of rubber boots.